Whether you have a client who likes to communicate via text messages or you like to send quick updates to avoid longer phone conversations, the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard can be a blessing for text communication -- and an annoyance if you frequently encounter the 160-character limit placed on all SMS messages. Fortunately, hitting the limit isn't as big a deal as it used to be.

It's Not Just Your iPhone

If a phone can text, it faces the same 160-character limit as your iPhone. This means clients and customers with Blackberries, Androids, and even basic flip phones have to deal with the same headache due to the way mobile networks operate: SMS messages are delivered through a "secondary data channel" that supports much smaller amounts of information than that of standard voice networks, according to an article in the LA Times Tech section, making the limitation universal.

iMessage Can Help

As long as the person you're texting has an iPhone, iPad or other iOS device with an active data connection, the operating system's iMessage service negates the 160-character texting limit. On your iPhone, messages sent from the service go through the same Messaging menu, so no extra effort is required on your part, but if your phone detects the other party is on iOS, it sends your message via data, eliminating the limitation.

Other Phones

Most of today's smartphones use threaded, or chat-style, texting, which converts conversations into something that looks like the window of an instant messaging program. Your iPhone lets you send texts over the limit even when you're not using iMessage for just this reason: Even if you go over, there's a good chance the client or co-worker you're texting has a phone capable of reassembling your long-winded message into a single, combined communication.

Charges

Although it's rare to come across a tiered, or limited, texting plan these days, it's still worth noting that all major carriers bill every 160 characters as a new text whether the characters come in the same message or not. This applies specifically to those messages not sent through data services like iMessage, so if your messages tend to run long, try to avoid the cell networks when possible, especially if you're paying per text.